4 ms·

What will be realized first: affordable graphene production, nuclear fusion, or general artificial intelligence?

alex_hitchins 9y ago
I'll go one step further - humans might sort their species out and stop with all the pointless tribalism and unite for the common good.
- solnyshok 9y ago
  Or, human might sorth their species out and away from the list of Earth species, effectively rendering question of nuclear fusion, graphene production, AI, and social constructs irrelevant.
- saiya-jin 9y ago
  that is so naive it's almost cute. more likely old tribes will die and new ones will be born (wealth, access to advanced AI, supreme medical care, prolonging life, enhancing body and mind etc.)
- hutzlibu 9y ago
  "stop with all the pointless tribalism " I'll challenge that, because I think tribalism (living in small groups) is the way more akin to our genes. And much from the rising mental problems of humans today comes from living on your own in a big anonymous pool of strangers. But those small groups could then indeed work (more) together for the common good.
  - incompatible 9y ago
    I'm not sure if the Earth is large enough to distribute 8 billion humans into sufficiently separated small groups, and such a scheme isn't even on the political horizon.
    - hutzlibu 9y ago
      I didn't say there need to be a big space separation, nor clearly divided groups, just that the general people you interact with are in general familiar and not randomly strangers who change all the time. So a more tribal way of living in the cities is possible, I believe. But .. actually there is also enough space on earth left ... poplated areas are very dense compared to big open lands.
  - alex_hitchins 9y ago
    If we are looking at what's in are basic genes as a marker on what we should be doing, I don't think we should be messing about with fusion. Or fission come to think of it. I agree loneliness and mental health are big problems today however don't think the answer is having an adversary to motivate yourself.
    - hutzlibu 9y ago
      "If we are looking at what's in are basic genes as a marker on what we should be doing, I don't think we should be messing about with fusion. " Why? I didn't say we should live stone age style. And using technology is very akin to our genes, afaik. So I don't see any problems with that. What matters more than the tools are the social interactions I believe. And there we could do better.
- martiuk 9y ago
  The funny thing is that you're announcing you're part of the tribe that doesn't like tribalism.
  - alex_hitchins 9y ago
    I'd say it was more of an opinion rather than a tribal belief or following. I guess it depends of the definition of tribalism. In short, I'd like humans to just get on with each other and treat the world we share with other species with greater respect. If that puts me in a tribe, then so be it!
sgt101 9y ago
We can make graphene very cheaply and easily now, the issue is making large continuous high quality sheets of it. Same for carbon nanotubes. GAI and fusion are different issues in that we have clear elementary understand of fusion (and a large chunk of the technology worked out). We have little to no understanding of cognition and much of the technology that we use for AI now may (or may not) prove to be irrelevant to GAI.

I'll go one step further - humans might sort their species out and stop with all the pointless tribalism and unite for the common good.

solnyshok 9y ago
Or, human might sorth their species out and away from the list of Earth species, effectively rendering question of nuclear fusion, graphene production, AI, and social constructs irrelevant.
saiya-jin 9y ago
that is so naive it's almost cute. more likely old tribes will die and new ones will be born (wealth, access to advanced AI, supreme medical care, prolonging life, enhancing body and mind etc.)
hutzlibu 9y ago
"stop with all the pointless tribalism " I'll challenge that, because I think tribalism (living in small groups) is the way more akin to our genes. And much from the rising mental problems of humans today comes from living on your own in a big anonymous pool of strangers. But those small groups could then indeed work (more) together for the common good.
- incompatible 9y ago
  I'm not sure if the Earth is large enough to distribute 8 billion humans into sufficiently separated small groups, and such a scheme isn't even on the political horizon.
  - hutzlibu 9y ago
    I didn't say there need to be a big space separation, nor clearly divided groups, just that the general people you interact with are in general familiar and not randomly strangers who change all the time. So a more tribal way of living in the cities is possible, I believe. But .. actually there is also enough space on earth left ... poplated areas are very dense compared to big open lands.
- alex_hitchins 9y ago
  If we are looking at what's in are basic genes as a marker on what we should be doing, I don't think we should be messing about with fusion. Or fission come to think of it. I agree loneliness and mental health are big problems today however don't think the answer is having an adversary to motivate yourself.
  - hutzlibu 9y ago
    "If we are looking at what's in are basic genes as a marker on what we should be doing, I don't think we should be messing about with fusion. " Why? I didn't say we should live stone age style. And using technology is very akin to our genes, afaik. So I don't see any problems with that. What matters more than the tools are the social interactions I believe. And there we could do better.
martiuk 9y ago
The funny thing is that you're announcing you're part of the tribe that doesn't like tribalism.
- alex_hitchins 9y ago
  I'd say it was more of an opinion rather than a tribal belief or following. I guess it depends of the definition of tribalism. In short, I'd like humans to just get on with each other and treat the world we share with other species with greater respect. If that puts me in a tribe, then so be it!

sgt101 9y ago

We can make graphene very cheaply and easily now, the issue is making large continuous high quality sheets of it. Same for carbon nanotubes. GAI and fusion are different issues in that we have clear elementary understand of fusion (and a large chunk of the technology worked out). We have little to no understanding of cognition and much of the technology that we use for AI now may (or may not) prove to be irrelevant to GAI.